Web resources such as web pages have geographic locations associated with them, which can be categorized as having a local or global geographic scope. For example, a web page that lists houses for sale within a certain region has a local geographic scope. In contrast, a web page with general information, such as an introduction to mathematics, is likely of interest to users from any location and thus has a global geographic scope.
Many location-based web applications have been developed to support mobile devices and local searching needs. Such location-based web applications include navigation systems, location-based search systems, local advertisement systems, geographic retrieval systems, and so on. These web applications typically need to detect a geographic location of a web resource and match it with the user's current location. For example, a cellular phone user may want to find a restaurant that is near the user's current location. A web application could match the user's current location as indicated by the cellular phone with the location of restaurants to identify which restaurants may be nearby.
Typically, web applications search web resources for location information (e.g., city names) and use that information when determining whether the web resource matches the user's location. A difficulty with such web applications is that location information of a web resource may have different purposes and thus different meanings. For example, a web page for a Chinese restaurant may contain the geographic locations “Peking” and “Redmond.” The geographic location of Peking indicates that the subject of the web page is somehow related to China, but the geographic location of Redmond indicates that the restaurant is located in Redmond, Wash., USA. If a web application is trying to match the user's current location, which may be in Beijing, to the location of the web page, the web application might erroneously report to the user the web page for the Chinese restaurant because it contains “Peking,” which is a geographic location related to Beijing.
It would be desirable to have a technique that would differentiate geographic locations associated with web resources so that web applications could use the geographic locations that are appropriate for their intended purpose.